Astronomy · Obs Report · 7th September 2007

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Location:

Northallerton (North Yorkshire, UK)

From:

2007-09-07 23:20 UT

To:

2007-09-08 00:15 UT

Equipment:

Naked Eye Binoculars Panasonic DMC-FZ7

Notes:

A hot day gave way to clear skies with good transparency and the Milky Way bright overhead. There was significant dew and the temperature was chillier than I expected. The Moon had not risen.

Starry Sky Imaging

With beautifully transparent skies and the Moon not risen I decided not to set the 'scope up, but instead to enjoy the summer skies with my binoculars and attempt some more starry sky photos. I took images of both the Perseus and Cygnus regions using my telescope tripod for better tracking of the sky.

Meteors

With the camera set to take a few photos I left it alone and went to a dark spot of the driveway with my binoculars. Lying on my back I did a general sweep of the Milky Way above me which I could see extending from Cassiopeia to down past Aquila. As well as looking at the open clusters in Cassiopeia, the Double Cluster, and Brocchi's Cluster (the coathanger), I also had a look for the Ring ( M57) in Lyra and could discern a faint patch of light in the right spot. Whilst in the Lyra area I saw a brief, dim meteor flash through my FOV at 23:55. I then spent a few moments watching that area of sky without binoculars and at 23:58 saw a bright meteor moving in the same direction close to Lyra - this one moved slower but still only lasted for about a second.

Uranus

My final effort with the camera was to take a picture including the planet Uranus which is currently at magnitude 5.7 in Aquarius. Unfortunately Aquarius is positioned just above two bright street lights making it very difficult to observe. In the picture I have identified Uranus successfully but the image is largely washed out by the lights.